Vertigo began publishing American Vampire, Snyder's first creator-owned ongoing series, in March 2010. He later wrote the four-issue miniseries, Iron Man: Noir, which debuted in April 2010. His first foray into the genre was a one-shot focusing on the first Human Torch, part of Marvel's 70th anniversary celebrations. In 2009, Snyder began writing for Marvel Comics. Snyder taught writing at New York University, Columbia University, and Sarah Lawrence College. In 2008, Snyder wrote a short story called The Thirteenth Egg for the anthology Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. Voodoo Heart was shortlisted for The Story Prize in 2006. Stephen King picked two of the included stories-"Wreck" and "Dumpster Tuesday"-for the 2007 The Best American Short Stories anthology shortlist. The New York Times published a positive review by author Andrew Sean Greer in the Sunday Book Review. The collection received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and was a Kirkus Reviews "Hot Debut" of the year. His first collection of stories, Voodoo Heart, was published by the Dial Press in June 2006. Snyder signing copies of American Vampire and Detective Comics at a Septemstore appearance Prose fiction
All the things I ended up writing about, those things that are deeply frightening to me-fear of commitment and growing up, fear of losing loved ones, the wonder and terror of falling in love-all of it was constantly being played out all around me in this weird, cartoonish, magnified way at Disney." Career Snyder's Disney World stint strongly influenced his writing he later recalled, "it did a world of good for my writing . He initially worked as a custodian, but after he injured his shoulder and started to have some problems with his co-workers, he auditioned and worked as some of the characters. Snyder graduated from Brown University in 1998 with a degree in creative writing, and then worked at Walt Disney World for about a year. In comics, he has named Alan Moore and Frank Miller as his favorite writers. This is a must-have for the shelves.At the age of nine, Snyder attended a summer camp where one of the counselors read Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon to him over the summer, an experience that Snyder says "really jump-started my love of story-telling." He was also influenced by the writing of Denis Johnson, Raymond Carver, Rick Bass, Joy Williams, Elizabeth McKracken, Stephen King, Tobias Wolff, and George Saunders. The colors are from another planet, a majestic display of talent.įinally, this TPB has some extras that are quite interesting, specially the page development of Francavilla’s work.įrancavilla is an artist to follow closely and Scott Snyder deserves to be in Batman podium of best writers. He has a style very similar to David Mazzuchhelli. What Francavilla delivers is outstanding. His work, while being very good, pales in front of Francavilla. I loved the interpretation of Gotham of Jok, the way there are always bats around when Batman is in the outdoors. Both are far above from average cartoonist. The drawings are in charge of Jok and Franceso Francavilla, having each own his own style. The characters are dark, unpredictable, extremely disturbing, in tune with Gotham environment. Slowly you start to understand as you read it, that everything is connected and by the time Snyder is ready for the final act, you are completely hooked.
This TPB needs to be considered as graphic novel, separated in arcs of 2 or 3 issues with back-ups stories that gradually grow in intensity and importance. All you need to know to fully enjoy this story is explained in a couple of paragraphs in the first page. Another highlight for those that don’t follow Batman closely is that you don’t need to have all the baggage of knowing the Bat family and all the current whereabout of the heroes that inhabit Gotham. This is an important thing to notice because proves that we don’t need Bruce Wayne to have a meaningful story of Batman. The strange thing is that the man behind the mask is Dick Greyson instead of Bruce Wayne. Is among the best Batman stories ever published. Accompanied by Jok and Francesco Francavilla. This is a fantastic mystery story, having Gordon family a particular prominence. This volume collects Detective Comics #871-881, before the reboot of the New 52 ( which was already rebooted again with Rebirth).